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Baroque Era
Contents [hide]
1. Overview
2. Early Baroque Music
2.1 Texture
3. Baroque Vocal Music
3.1 Opera
3.2 Claudio Monteverdi
3.3 Oratorio and Passion
3.4 Heinrich Shutz
4. Baroque Instrumental Music
4.1 Types
4.2 Organ Music
4.3 Clavier Music
4.4 Ensemble Music
5. Late Baroque Era
5.1 Antonio Vivaldi
5.2 Georg Philipp Telemann
5.3 Johann Sebastian Bach
5.4 George Frideric Handel
Overview
The Baroque Era (1600-1750) was a time in Europe in which multiple genres of music were created
and different styles were being toyed with and varied. The term Baroque comes from the Portuguese
word barroco which means an irregularly shaped pearl. This term was appropriate due to the fact that it
was used as a derogatory name because the people back then viewed the music as loud, noisy, and
audacious. This era spawned the emphasis on virtuosity and ornamentation of music, which composers
loved to play around with. During this time, the affections were taken into consideration, that is,
composers tried to reflect the emotional impact music has on people in their music itself.
Early Baroque Music
Texture
Texture got a big emphasis during the Baroque Era. One of the things that was of great emphasis was
the bass continuo. An organ bass was composed to accompany the vocal parts of church music. This
was later changed to basso seguente. This type of texture was normally a figured bass, Arabic numerals
or symbols for chromatic alterations above or below the given notes to convey their intentions with
regard to the harmony.
During the Baroque Era, key tonality was given a much more emphasis and composers started giving it
more attention. This transition to major-minor keys began during the Renaissance but was not really
developed until the Baroque Era. The biggest step to this process was the recognition of the triad as a
harmonic unit.
Rhythm was another strong emphasis on texture. Sacred music still used the tactus, or beat, was the
rhythm, but two other types of rhythms prevailed. One type was a regular metrical rhythm derived from
the definite patterns of strong and weak beats that were vital to dance music. The other was a flexible
unmetrical rhythm that was founded on speech.
Notation was something composers emphasized a lot during the Baroque Era. The use of bar lines to
indicate measures had been developed in the seventeenth century, but was not fully developed until the
mid seventeenth century. Time signatures were also being used during this time very frequently to
denote how many beats were to happen in each of these measures.
Baroque Vocal Music
Opera
Opera was in development throughout history, during the Middle Ages with liturgical dramas and also
in the Renaissance when composers would put music in between acts of plays, called an intermedio. A
pastorale, a piece of literature, drama and music, that depicts characters and scenes of rural life, was
another predecessor of opera.
There is a debate over what opera was really the “first opera”, whether it be Corsi's Dafne or
Monteverdi's Orfeo.
Corsi's Dafne was consisted of a prologue and six scenes. The story is about the Greek love story about
Apollo and Dafne. The ending eventually leads to Dafne getting tired of being around Apollo and
requests the gods to transform her into a tree. Apollo then swears that he would wear a band of leaves
from the tree Dafne was turned into on his head for the rest of time.
Dafne established a pattern that many other composers followed during early opera. One was the
introduction prologue where a character that is not in the story tells the audience the theme of the
opera. Another feature was that the text is poetry, and the plot is based of classic mythology (Greek
mythology mainly). Pastoral characters and scenes are incorporated. An emotional part is sung by the
main character and it is eventually resolved at a crucial moment by divine intervention. The music is
accompanied solo music, but some chorus may be used. And finally, choral singing concludes the
opera.
Claudio Monteverdi
One very popular composer of opera was Claudio Monteverdi. He is most famous for his opera Orfeo
which is disputed to be the first opera ever written. His musical style was rooted with his understanding
of Plato's statement that music is composed of text, thus Monteverdi made his text the most important
part of his music. Music was secondary to text because Monteverdi believed beautiful music without a
meaning is not beautiful at all. Monteverdi also created the stile concitato, excited style, based on his
thoughts about rhythm applying to the principles of ethos. He advanced the idea of two practices, the
prima prattica and the seconda prattica. The prima prattica was Renaissance polyphony and had
emphasis on music. The seconda prattica was the presentation of text through music expressing its
affections.
A part of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, the opening measures of the prologue.
Monteverdi has been created with writing 3 operas, a ballet, 12 volumes containing approximately 250
madrigals and other secular songs, 5 volumes of sacred music, and approximately 20 sacred pieces
published in anthologies, but most of his work has been lost.
Oratoria and Passion
An oratoria was much like an opera, except it had much more emphasis on the chorus and not just a
vocal solo part. They are also presented without stage action, scenery, or even costumes, and normally
has a narrator.
A part of Giacomo Carissimi's oratorio Cum Vocasset In Proelium
A Passios was a song about the Cruxifixion of Jesus Christ. These were normally polyphonic and dated
back to the fifteenth century. There are different kinds of passions, one being a responsorial passion, in
which motet-style polyphony was used for only portions of the text representing turba participation in
the Passion. There are two types of the responsorial Passion, the choral or dramatic Passion and the
through-composed or motet Passion. The choral Passion has portions of text that are set polyphonically
and the remainder is monophonic. The motet Passion is when the text is purely set polyphonically.
Heinrich Schutz
Schutz was considered the greatest German composer of the seventeenth century and was the first
German composer to receive international renown. He is mainly known for his use of German text
while also fusing German and Italian style music, setting the bar for German music for the remainder of
the Baroque Era. Most of Schutz's music has been lost, but some has been salvaged. His works for the
funeral of Prince Heinrich Posthumus of Reuss, called Musicalische Exequien, has survived to today.
Schutz, while visiting Italy, published his Symphoniae sacrae, sacred symphonies, which was a book of
Latin motets. In all of these motets, the instruments that were used for accompaniment were the ones
that eventually became standard trio sonata ensemble instruments, such as two violins, violone and
keyboard or organ.
A part of Schutz's D'orrida selce alpina, one of his madrigals.
Baroque Instrumental Music
Types
During the Baroque Era, many different types of instrumental music were developed. Most of these
were based off of vocal counter parts.
A theme and variation took a general theme, mainly a cantus firmus, and varied it someway. In a cantus
firmus variation, the melody remained unchanged through all repetitions but usually was not retained in
the same part in all variations. The melody, in each variation, was supported by counterpoint. In a
paraphrase variation, the contrapuntal harmonies remain constant, and the melody is given different
embellishments in each variation.
Dance music became very popular in the Baroque Era. Dances were still used together to contrast each
other, and eventually the suite was developed. The suite was a collection of different dances, which
became a multimovement entity in three stages: 1) three dances – allemande, courante, and sarabande –
formed the core of the suite, 2) a gigue was often included into the suite around 1650 and 3) a standard
pattern had been established for the suites around 1680.
Quasi-improvisatory compositions were being developed during the Baroque Era. A fantasia was a type
of improvisatory piece that was basically whatever the performer felt like playing at the time of the
performance. A toccata was a piece of music that was used to show off the dexterity of the performer
and had many virtuostic runs in it. A prelude was a piece of music that normally was used by lutenists
to check tuning and keyboard players to get the feel of the instrument.
Organ Music
Organ music really took shape in the Baroque Era. Organs were no longer just used to accompany
chorus music, but were actually written as a solo instrument. Toccatas were written for organ players to
show how fast they can play notes up and down the keyboard. Fugues were being written for organs as
were chorale based compositions. They are consisted of the chorale fugue, first line of the chorale is
treated as a fugue, a chorale prelude, polyphonic setting of an entire chorale melody, and the chorale
variations, set of variations based on a chorale melody.
One very important composer of organ music was German composer Dietrich Buxtehude. Buxtehude
was a very accomplished organ player, there is a rumor that Bach walked 200 miles just to listen to him
play. Buxtehude not only played for services and supplied the music for each service, he reinstated the
Abendmusik church concerts.
Clavier Music
Many styles were written for clavier music, all of them based off of vocal models.
Theme and variation songs started out stating the actual theme and would use variations of the theme in
the sections that followed.
Harpsichord suites were composed and many were composed during the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth century. Most of the movements appear in allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue order, with
the opportunity of optional dances being placed in between the sarabande and gigue.
Sonatas were composed for clavier instruments, mainly for solo harpsichord. One solo harpsichord
piece, Sonata in Bb, contains five short sections, in slow-fast-slow-fast-slow order with the last slow
section being a repetition of the first. The internal structure closely resembled an Italian solo structure.
Ensemble Music
Many composers wrote music for consorts, or ensembles, of instruments during the Baroque Era. Two
types of sonatas existed, sonata da chiesa and sonata da camera. Sonata da chiesa was a church sonata
meant for use in a church service while the sonata da camera was meant for chamber use and secular
settings. A trio sonata was formed eventually, but the name is misleading. A trio sonata has four voices
and not three like the name suggests, two treble pitched instruments, 1 bass pitched instrument, and a
harpsichord with a figured bass. A concerto was a piece of music that was purely for instrumental use
and was performed by ensembles. An ensemble's size could range from a small ensemble, concertino,
or a large ensemble, concerto grosso.
In Italy, a new tuning system was invented for ensemble use. This system was called scordatura. In a
scordatura tuning system, an instrument would be tuned unconventionally so as to get a specific sound
out of the instrument or the music called for the instrument to be tuned that way.
An important composer of instrumental music was Arcangelo Corelli. He wrote almost exclusively for
bow stringed instruments, being an accomplished violin player himself. His compositions for violins
were normally idiomatic. His music is characterized by clear key tonality, seemingly one of the earliest
composers to write exclusively in major-minor keys.
Late Baroque Era
Antonio Vivaldi
Vivaldi, in addition to operas, wrote vocal music such as motets, psalm settings, Magnificats, Vespers,
Masses, oratorios, cantatas, and serenatas. Vivaldi also wrote for instruments, approximately 90
sonatas, 16 sinfonias, and more than 500 concertos with diverse solo instrumentation. Vivaldi's music is
very accessible because he wrote a lot of his music for children and is very easy to grasp for young
musicians.
Vivaldi's concertos mostly had three movements, in fast-slow-fast order, normally with a contrasting
key for the middle movement that was closely related to the two Allegros. The final Allegro movement
was normally shorter in length than the first and the slow movement was normally lyrical, expressive,
and sometimes passionate with reduced orchestral instrumentation.
A part of Vivaldi's aria Nulla in mundo for solo Soprano and organ.
Georg Philipp Telemann
Telemann was one of the most famous composers of the Baroque Era. In 1702, in Leipzig, he
established the collegium musicum, a group of students who met to perform all kinds of music, much
of which was newly composed. The collegium would give public concerts regularly and would have a
blend of sacred and secular music in their program.
Most of Telemann's works have been lost, but works of his have still survived. These works fall under
the categories of: sacred cantatas, festal church music for funerals and inaugurations, Masses and
oratorios, vocal pieces for weddings and academic or military ceremonies, operas, secular cantatas,
Lieder, lute suite, keyboard pieces, and instrumental solo and ensemble works.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Probably one of the most famous composers of all time, Bach wrote many songs over the span of his
life. Despite his popularity today, Bach was not that famous back in his day. Bach had many jobs
composing music around Europe, one job he had even had him write a different piece of music every
week for the Sunday Service. This eventually grew too tiring for Bach and he left that job.
Bach did not have what most people would consider a saintly life. He jumped from job to job, mainly
due to complications with his bosses. At one point, he was rumored to have been with a girl he really
loved in the wine cellar of the church he was working at “making music”. Bach was rumored to have
walked 200 miles to hear Buxtehude play and asked to take 4 weeks off of work in order to do this, but
had stayed longer because, rumors say, he met a girl there.
Bach wrote in nearly every single genre that was in use during the late Baroque Era. Even though he
composed no operas, his secular cantatas demonstrated his ability to write expressive dramatic music in
operatic style. Bach's vocal cantatas are of various types. Bach would use text from the Lutheran Bible
and from chorales and combine biblical ad chorale texts and wrote some himself.
Bach has been mostly noted for his keyboard music. He wrote pieces for keyboard in almost unbroken
succession throughout his career. He wrote specifically for organ or clavier. Bach enjoyed writing
pieces for keyboard instruments that were very hard, but showed off to a great extent the playing ability
of the performer. Most of Bach's works had to be played perfectly or the performer would get lost very
easily and there would be no recovery from getting lost in one of Bach's keyboard pieces.
A part of Bach's chorale Ach
wie fluchtig, ach wie nichtig. This shows Bach's love of fermatas and
sustained chords.
George Frideric Handel
Handel is another big name of Baroque composers. He expressed his interest in music at an early age,
but his father refused him an instrument.
Handel's most famous works are for voice. His most famous work is the Messiah. Even though this was
his most famous piece, his main focus was opera. As he matured as an opera composer, Handel became
more inventive and manipulated recitatives and arias to suit his musical purposes. He built up to an aria
by approaching it through recitative and arioso. Some of his accompanied recitatives are intensely
emotional.
Handel also wrote some instrumental works, but they were mainly connected to his stage works.
Handel had invented the organ concerto and each of his can be related to the oratorio for which it was
created.
A part of Handel's aria Ombra mai fu.